This is your SolarWakeup for January 10th, 2020
The Wind and Solar Connection. What if anything is or should be the relationship between wind and solar? Does the growth of the offshore wind market create new opportunities or limit the market potential for solar?
Scaling Corporate Deals. With the expansion of mega solar deals, how do they grow beyond Facebook/Amazon/Google or companies like AnBev? Could the market get into the smaller corporations with different credit profiles and smaller solar or does that simply become community solar or retail choice?
Good For The Goose. The National Grid pension fund is investing new funds into renewables in the UK. I have not seen similar pension moves in the US but it would be interesting to see how 401k’s are changing within their energy portfolios.
Sanders, Reviews and Policy. The Sunrise Movement has endorsed the candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump is looking to eliminate the environmental reviews for major projects. The House of Representatives is making moves that could set a climate plan in motion if the stars align.
A Climate Warrior Tribute. This SolarWakeup community is amazing, you donated with tremendous generosity allowing the organizers to double their goal for the children left alone. Read the story about Tyshaun and his tragic murder written by solar veteran Michael Healy and colleagues.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 9th, 2020
The #Solar1000. I’ve been thinking about the 2020 prediction that I wanted to share since I’m already on the record with saying the residential solar market will grow more than 25% in 2020 even with the ITC stepdown. Looking at data yesterday, I think there is a great chance that more than 50 solar installers will break through 1,000 installs this year. I tweeted the prediction with a timestamp, so you can hold me to it. This is a big step for solar installers, it’s not just running a solar company but actually building a massive business. #waittosee
A SunShot Challenge. When it comes to government programs in the innovation space the SunShot program has been remarkably effective and successful. I can personally vouch that several solar companies exist today thanks to the early help from SunShot when ‘climate tech’ wasn’t something investors were funding. So it’s great to see what appears to be a similar effort get into the storage side of things. I hope the program calls me when they need reviewers once again.
Can We Deregulate? Virginia has a bill filed that would allow for retail energy choice for consumers, breaking off some of the monopoly power held by Dominion. This is likely a legislative long shot but the argument has long been made that neither party should continue to prop up an idea that hinders competition in a free market.
Request For Help. New Columbia Solar from DC lost one of their team members over the holidays. A single father that trained through community groups to be a core part of the solar installers business was tragically killed a few weeks ago. The company is asking the solar community to help raise funds for Tyshaun’s daughters. Thank you for your help.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 8th, 2020
Emissions Are Declining. Some good news are coming out of 2019, emissions in the US are anticipated to be down 2% largely due to the electricity sector, good job everyone!
Visual Change To Generation. In 2019, coal consumption in the US is down 18% to the levels of 1975. If you want to see how this change is happening, look at the graph from the UK below. You can see how king coal was everything for nearly an entire century but that is changing. In Texas the trend is similar, wind basically equalled the generation of coal and will overcome it this year.
Need For More. Now that the generation portfolio is changing to a better blend, we have to make sure that solar is in a position to take on the additional load caused by electric cars. Estimates are coming out but that will surely be understated. With every major OEM going electric, what will they do to work together with homeowners and power suppliers.
What This Decade Means. This decade has already been labels the Solar+ decade by the solar DC trade group. In order to achieve this we must put our differences aside and realize that as an industry we have to be uniform in our message. Homeowners that have or want solar need to get involved and it’s our job to activate them!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 7th, 2020
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 6th, 2020
Welcome To 2020. I am flying back to San Francisco today after a week back in Florida. More content and coverage coming as soon as the routine kicks back off. Reminder that you can always email me by clicking reply any morning with news and information about your solar work.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 3rd, 2020
The Mandates. I don’t like the word mandate but that is what the new home solar legislation in California is. The reality of the policy is that solar installed during new home construction is exponentially more cost effective than a one-off retrofit at a later date. Look for this policy to go farther in 2020 and beyond. The market will drive this as well once home builders realize that this generates instant value for the home buyer.
Where Is EVs Trade Org? EVs are coming fast and consumers want them but the market isn’t ready for changes. The OEMs don’t appear to be coordinating a policy path in DC and in the States, the closest I’ve seen comes from the charging companies. The opposition to EVs will come from labor, mechanics, and oil majors amongst others. There are trillions of dollars in play that will shift industries. This comes before the adaptation of self-driving cars which will decimate insurance premiums in due time.
Community Solar In 2020. Community solar programs are a huge success and are oversubscribed anywhere they are enacted. It also bridge the best of all of solar where distributed installers match homeowners with large scale developers and tech companies. This should be a big year for the market.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 2nd, 2020
Happy New Year! Welcome to the 2020 decade. Hard to imagine what solar looks like in 10 years. But let’s try. What is your biggest prediction for the end of the year and the end of the decade? Hit reply to this email and send me your thoughts, the best ones make it on.
Grow The Community. If this email was forwarded to you, please subscribe. If you like this newsletter, please forward it to one friend so they can get the news of the day as well.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for December 23rd, 2019
Was It The Skinny Package? Not that it matters much at this point but here is an additional level of information from the ITC showdown. Senate negotiators apparently walked into a White House looking to kill all tax extenders. This did not bode well for the Senate which promptly pulled out their skinny package, i.e. what the chairman wants. So when the biodiesel and wind credit goes through, you can imagine the senior senator from Iowa is somewhat content. Unfortunately for solar it appears that the power exerted on the legislative bodies wasn’t enough to get the skinny inclusion this time.
No Time For MOPR. FERC may be creating the biggest change in power markets in the history of the solar market. Through their minimum price mechanism, renewables that receive state support will have to clear at a higher price allowing generation like gas and coal to clear below that level. This means that consumers will artificially pay more for the most cost effective generation available and still be on the hook for the societal costs of polluting generation. In short, this is a giant subsidy for generating plants that are no longer viable and something the Trump administration has been after for 3 years. Much more to come but some Twitter commentary says that capacity markets could close or states leave their markets altogether.
Your Coal For The Holidays. As we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, you get the coal subsidy with the return of the incandescent light bulbs which the administration is bringing back to life. Doubt the market will get on board with that…Happy Holidays!
Programming Note. Today will be the last SolarWakeup edition of the year and the decade. I appreciate everything that you do and your readership over the past 7 years. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I will see you in the next decade as the Earth (and I) get one year older.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for December 20th, 2019
Have a great weekend! More insight on what happened with the ITC fight coming Monday.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for December 19th, 2019
Thank You. I appreciate the outreach in the past 24 hours and feedback. Yesterday was by far the most new subscribers, forwards and opens of the SolarWakeup email. This industry has never been more passionate about our future and advocacy. More to come.
While I Have Your Attention. Please give a donation to the Solar Rights Alliance, $5, $20, or whatever you can. We need to build our grassroots and this funding helps.
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Yann